Real Questions

Real Questions with... Dusky

Dusky, comprised of Nick Harriman and Alfie Granger-Howell, have been generating a lot of buzz in the dance music community over the last few years. Their music has been supported by the likes of producers/DJs including Seth Troxler, Skream, Diplo, and more. And with a busy touring schedule, the guys continue to work on new music.

The guys tell Evolution Radio that they are working on a new EP. "It’s gonna be 3 tracks. We’re doing it on our own label which we’ve just started, that’s gonna be the first release." They go on, "It's pretty similar to tracks we’ve done before but we’ve got some different influences. One of them has got a real like U.K. rave influence. Drum 'n' bass jungle, old school hardcore influence in it."

The guys will also be busy on the road this year. After their EDC NY appearance, they come back to the U.S. in June and then again in the fall, with gigs mostly in Europe and the U.K. in between.

Evolution Radio met up with Dusky before their gig at Brooklyn's Output, where Nick and Alfie opened up about everything from their pet peeves to guilty pleasures to what they think of the dance music scene. Check it out below:

What are your pet peeves?

People hogging the arm rests on planes. Ignorance in people in general. People that walk like super slowly, it’s annoying because I’m so tall so my strides are like double speed of normal people. But I can’t be pissed off at people for having short legs.

What is the meanest thing you've ever said to your manager?

We’re not rude, he's like on of our mates. We've got a pretty good relationship. The only thing mean we’ve probably said to him is being a little sarcastic rather than actually being cruel to him. We’re not really like that. We won’t be like whatever, whatever. We don’t try and communicate in that way, so nothing too bad.

What’s been your most embarrassing moment?

Stomping the wrong deck a few times, and just try to kind of style out like "oh something’s happened to the mixer, oh now it’s come back on!"

What is your guilty pleasure?

I think probably like I ride motor bikes, riding motor bikes and going dangerously fast and doing stupid stuff. then afterwards thinking like that’s a bit stupid, we shouldn’t have done that.

Junk food for sure. When we’re in the states particularly, we like to indulge.

Do you guys have a favorite junk food in the states?

Mexican food, wings, burgers, fries is pretty much all of it. Pulled pork is nice. I went to a place in Memphis --- run down little shop but it was amazing, so tasty.

Have you ever Facebook or Twitter stalked a fan?

Yeah. Stalked is a bit of a strong word for it but definitely yeah, who wouldn't. You’re like "where does this person come from, why do they think that?" And sometimes you find out why, sometimes you don’t. But it’s interesting to know either way.

What’s the last illegal thing you did if you ever did anything illegal?

I brought a banana into the United States of America. I didn’t declare it. I might lose my visa now (laughs). But not on purpose. Like I look in my bag and I’m like "oh s**t I've got a banana." Luckily I didn't get caught.

What part if any of the dance music scene do you dislike the most?

There is quite a few things to dislike. But to put it in perspective, like most of it’s amazing but I think people go into clubs where they don’t really care about the music or the production, they just go in there to be seen. Just, the whole like "bottle service" kind of concept in clubs . How many people bring out bottles of vodka and sparklers and stuff, people flushing their money around. That side of it I just despise.

What band would you never admit to listening to but you are listening to them?

I’ve been listening to the Beyonce album. I haven’t been listening to that much. I’ve just been listening to like promos recently, haven’t really listening to that much new music. If I have it’s been like really obscure techno stuff.

What is the most shameful thing you’ve ever spent money on?

I got a cleaner [cleaning service] for my house. I felt quite bad about that. Just because it’s quite a small flat and like I probably could’ve make the time to do it myself.

Clothes, spent too much money on clothes. Yeah feel a bit embarrassed about stupid amounts of money on whatever, coats and things.

I run up my phone bill a lot. Just by making calls abroad all the time without thinking about it – then I get like a 300 pound phone bill, $500 dollars something like that, so stupid that money could have been so much better spent.

What kind of crowds were you part of in high school?

I was a skater, so I used to skate when I was in school. So everyone I used to hang out with were skateboarders.

I didn't skate I was kind of with the just raving crowd.

Who is your celebrity crush?

Scarlett Johansson.

Do you steal from hotels?

Not steal. The thing is they would take your card before hand, so anything that you steal like they’ll just charge you.

I’ve taken like towels by mistake and mini bars [mini bar items] but then you just get charged for it anyways. You can’t like steal from a hotel like unless you use a fake card.

What are you careless about?

Still sometimes we’ve forgotten to press save. I’ve been using software to produce since I was a kid. You think I’d really learn by now but I did it the other day, so I lost like an hours worth of work. Just when you’re working and you start getting into it, you’re just like think press save, it crashes and it’s all gone.

oth of you are very tall, what’s your shoe size?

11/12 – depends on the make & 14. It’s also different in America. American 15. So I can’t get shoes in normal shops.

It’s annoying. Like the most popular shoe shop in the U.K. it’s called Size, and they only do up to size 11, so it’s just frustrating for me. It’s not like there’s not a lot of people out there with a size 12 it’s kind of normal, but oh well. First world problems.

What are your honest thoughts on the term EDM?

What’s frustrating is, it’s become a genre where people use it as an actual term for kind of dance music, anything. I don’t know I just feel like you shouldn’t confuse the like krass kind of super commercial, manufactured dance stuff that’s out there, with all that amazing stuff that has been going out for years and years and years.

What has been your weirdest fan interaction or the weirdest thing you’ve ever got from a fan?

Sometimes in America people gives us those bracelet things. Getting funny notes, like hand written notes. “You make me melt” stuff like that. But we haven’t had anything really kind of scary, yeah. I think it was quite sweet. I thought it was quite nice. You know it wasn’t just like "will you play some One Direction."

Do people request One Direction?

Yeah. [We also] had a request for Bon Jovi. We were actually in Sheffield.

What’s your biggest accomplishment so far?

Doing Essential Mix is quite a big step across - especially like in the U.K. that’s kind of like a bit of a benchmark of sort of how established you are as a DJ, so that was big for us.